![]() ![]() The Hawn Foundation’s Scientific Research Advisory Board page - which lists only one member: Kimberly Schonert-Reichl - links to Schonert-Reichl explaining how classroom mindfulness advances “Buddhist Contemplative Care” (at 38:35 of ). The Hawn Foundation website connects the dots from mindfulness to Buddhism. Learning the term mindfulness points children and parents to how to go “deeper” in practice. The curriculum insists that “to get the full benefit of MindUp lessons, children will need to know a specific vocabulary” - most crucially, the term mindfulness itself. Lesson plans use the term “mindfulness” repeatedly - to refer to any positive attitude or behavior: Picking up trash, keeping calm in emergencies, eating one’s vegetables. The MindUP curriculum is a patchwork of contributions from educators, neuroscientists, psychologists and Buddhist meditators hired by the Hawn Foundation. Some promoters of “secular” mindfulness refer to their strategy as “stealth Buddhism” (). However, simply swapping terms does not make the practice itself any less religious. The mindfulness practices at the core of MindUP are the same as those taught in Buddhist basics classes - but replacing the terms “Buddhism” and “meditation” with neuroscience vocabulary makes the curriculum sound like secular science instead of religion. Despite claims that mindfulness instills “universal” values, the above-named assumptions conflict head-on with other religious and nonreligious worldviews. Recognizing that every “self” is part of the same process of “becoming” develops moral and ethical virtues of “empathy, compassion, patience, and generosity.” Ultimately, this process leads to freedom from effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth, and entrance into a transcendent state of enlightenment or nirvana. This alleviates suffering by detaching the mind from pursuing desires or avoiding displeasures. The “Core Practice” of mindfulness - focusing attention on the breath and present-moment bodily sensations, while cultivating nonjudgmental awareness of passing thoughts and emotion - trains the mind to perceive experiences, and the notion of a “self,” as transient. Right mindfulness is the seventh aspect of the eightfold path of Buddhist awakening. Speaking before the Dalai Lama Center for Peace-Education, actress Goldie Hawn credits “His Holiness” with the birth of MindUP - and boasts that neuroscience packaging is a “script” to make Buddhist religious contemplative practices acceptable in schools (youtu.be/7pLhwGLYvJU). These facts suggest that MindUP may not only teach children how the brain works, but also promote Buddhist mindfulness meditation, a religious practice.Īccording to the MindUP curriculum, the “signature daily routine of the MindUP program” is the “Core Practice” of mindfulness meditation, practiced three times daily in the classroom. 30 front-page article on MindUP - and the MCCSC school-board presentation it reported - omit some key facts. This column is by Candy Gunther Brown, professor of religious studies at Indiana University. ![]()
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